The present invention relates to systems to connect telephone switching and dialing equipment to telephone company lines or trunks especially as part of call management systems which connect to telephone networks and generate telephone network signalling. This invention is of particular use in, although not limited to, call management systems which originate telephone calls.
Call management systems, also known as call origination systems or telemarketing systems or tele-collections systems, sequentially select telephone numbers, capture a telephone line or trunk, generate DTMF, MF or pulse signals, supply the signals to the line and listen for call progress tones, such as a busy signal or a ring back signal, as well as human voice. Upon an indication that a telephone has been answered, the system transfers the call to a station operator or plays a selected stored message over the telephone line to the called party. The system may also have the capability to play a selected stored message to the called party after connection to a station operator, at the operator's direction, and/or to connect the party to a station operator after playing a selected message.
Systems currently in use utilize switching means such as a Private Branch Exchange (PBX), or dialer circuit boards, physically and logically separate from the processor which controls the system. A need exists to improve the interface to the telephone trunks, including improving speed and quality of telephone network signalling, maintaining electronic isolation of local circuitry from the telephone network so as to prevent interference with telephone communications, and providing these and other features at substantially lesser cost than those currently in use.